“The world is coming to an end!” Liz raised her voice. “Blaze just admitted he was wrong.”

“There’s a first time for everything,” Blaze said. “Liz, I hate to admit it, but you belong right here. Roots look good on you.”

“Hear, hear!” Colleen clinked her beer bottle with Blaze’s.

“Raylen, be aware, she’s got a temper,” Blaze said.

“Oh, I’ve already seen that.” Raylen laughed.

Colleen leaned over and whispered in Liz’s ear, “When you get ready to sell those wings of yours for absolute sure, I’ll give you top dollar for them.”

One of Raylen’s good friends, Wil, held up his beer. “My awesome wife Pearl and I have an announcement. It’s twins and they’re due in July. If they’re girls, I’m hoping that they get their mama’s red hair.”

Liz wondered what it would be like to have twins—girls with Colleen’s red hair, and maybe Gemma’s carefree attitude. Would she and Raylen have blue-eyed children or would they have her dark hair and eyes?

“Congratulations!” Liz raised her tea glass. “I can’t imagine having two kids at once.”

“I can’t imagine having one.” Pearl smiled. “But then I couldn’t imagine being married to Wil the first time he came into my motel. He was so cocky and full of himself—and still is—but that’s what I love about him. There we were in the middle of a winter storm and the next morning the cops arrested him for murder.”

“And?” Liz asked.

“It was a case of mistaken identity,” Wil answered. “But she came to my rescue in her vintage Caddy, and I swear I was in love from that day.”

“You were not! It took a shot contest to make you see you’d met your match,” Pearl said.

Wil kissed her on the cheek. “Red, darlin’, that’s just when I admitted it to myself. My heart knew the first time your devil cat and Digger got into it.”

“Red?” Liz leaned in closer and blocked out all the noise around her.

“She is Pearl to everyone else, believe me.” Jasmine laughed. “But she lets Wil call her Red.”

Liz smiled and shifted her gaze to Blaze. “Thanks for your toast. After the way you carried on, I know what that one cost you.”

“My thanks, too,” Raylen said. “I agree. Roots look good on her.”

“You’ll have to clip her wings every spring about the time we leave for the rounds,” Blaze said. “She won’t truly ever forget her previous life, but she does belong here with all y’all.”

Tressa walked up behind Liz and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Great party, darlin’ girl. But the truth is Raylen beat you on the fiddlin’ contest.”

“Aunt Tressa!” Liz could hardly believe that Tressa would say such a thing.

“But,” Tressa held up a finger, “Raylen, you will never get her to admit defeat and give you that fiddle of hers. The only way you’ll ever get it is to take the woman that goes with it. That’s goin’ to take some serious hard work. Good luck, son.”